Edge Financial Advisors LLC Makes New $382,000 Investment in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Edge Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 4,568 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $382,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 5,279.4% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,583,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $113,591,000 after acquiring an additional 1,554,374 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in Sempra during the first quarter worth $64,994,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in Sempra by 6.9% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,023,228,000 after purchasing an additional 874,133 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP grew its stake in Sempra by 96.9% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,636,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $117,528,000 after purchasing an additional 805,084 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra during the 1st quarter valued at $42,630,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.55.

Sempra Stock Performance

Sempra stock traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $83.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 357,288 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,843,266. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $83.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.46. Sempra has a 12-month low of $66.40 and a 12-month high of $86.57. The company has a market capitalization of $52.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.85, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.75.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.31% and a return on equity of 8.58%. Sempra’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 26th were issued a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s payout ratio is 52.99%.

Sempra Company Profile

Sempra operates as an energy infrastructure company in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Sempra California, Sempra Texas Utilities, and Sempra Infrastructure. The Sempra California segment provides electric services; and natural gas services to San Diego County.